The Monroe County Legislature is shown in session at the County Building in Rochester.

How refreshing it was to see, with nudging from City Hall and the County Building, Monroe County lawmakers begin to get in step on plans for a major construction project that could benefit the city, county and region.

The apparent agreement to move forward on the Costco project is the kind of cooperation that this community needs more of if it's to ever begin getting a grip on vexing problems such as joblessness, poverty, a declining tax base and population loss.

Credit Mayor Lovely Warren and Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks for working behind the scenes to get beyond the stalemate caused by minority Democrats' unwillingness to go along with the intransigence of Republican lawmakers in the County Legislature.

Democrats, who've been essentially frozen out of the legislative process by Republicans, decided to fight back by blocking the capital spending budget tied to the Costco project in an attempt to persuade GOP leaders to create a bipartisan panel of lawmakers to investigate local development corporation scandals.

But rather than risk loss of the $101 million project for Westfall Road, which also includes a 300-unit apartment complex, Warren and Brooks began discussions that resulted in Democrats such as legislator Willie Lightfoot agreeing to authorize funding for the capital projects.

That kind of acquiescence for the greater good of the community needs to also start coming from the Republican side of the aisle. For too long, GOP lawmakers have operated in our-way-or-the-highway mode. This community can ill afford that kind of old-school clubbiness. Too many opportunities can be missed.

Now is not the time for the same old, tired political games when there is so much that's beneficial to this community at stake. Besides new housing units continuing to open up downtown, and big projects like College Town and the new transit terminal moving forward, new ones seem to be coming off the drawing boards one after the other.